On this page I will be writing about many pieces of literature ranging from board books to picture books to novels and many in between. I will be summarizing the books as well as responding to another prompt. Concept Books:
How Many Jelly Beans?
This concept book introduces increasing sums to children in picture form to allow children to see what an abstract number such as 1,000 looks like in real life.
Write about an important lesson that was learned in the story.
Large numbers such as 1,000 are not commonly seen in our world. Students become familiar with the amount that is involved with numbers like 5 and 10 but often if you ask a student how much of something is in a jar they will give you a very large number because they know its more than ten but they aren't sure what number to reference next. This book makes these larger numbers more concrete.
ABC or Counting Books:
Wordless Books:
Carl's Summer Vacation
The mother tells her young daughter to go take a nap before the fourth of July fireworks begin so that she will be able to stay awake for them. However, on the way to take a nap the young girl finds the family dog and the two go on an adventure instead. They explore a pond, forest, and many other places. By the time they return the fireworks are about to begin. Both the dog and the girl are so tired from the adventure that they fall asleep just as the mother hoped they wouldn't. Since this is a book with very few to no words, the illustrations play a large part in telling the story. The illustrator uses bright summer related colors to relay the setting of a summer barbecue clearly. Text to Self Connection: This story was essentially about a girl and her dog. I love this core meaning because I grew up with a golden retriever that was an extremely important part of my family. I remember being a girl child and exploring the woods surrounding my house with my dog. In this story the dog is somehow given human characteristics without even a word (since it is a wordless text). Any dog owner can connect to this idea of our animals not being able to talk but somehow having human characteristics such as caring and fun. The fact that the story is also 'unable to talk' in a way since it is wordless, is an interesting similarity to that of the concept of a family dog that I believe many readers will connect to.
Wave
A young girl stands on the shore of the beach staring towards the waves. At first she is scared of the wave and is seen running away from them. Next, she tries to scare the wave however, the wave knocks her down. The girl, first looking sad, looks around her to see that the wave has brought in tons of beautiful seashells that are now all around her. She has conquered her fear and realized that she likes the wave. This wordless book has a very simple plot line that is amplified by the choices of the illustrator. The illustrator used a sketch media with little color other than the blue in the wave which sets the focus of the book. Five Adjectives To Describe the Book's Main Character
Beginning: Curious, Cautious, Scared
End: Brave and Admiring
The White Book
A boy goes through many colors to try and find a friend. Out of pink came birds, out of blue came fish, out of green came a dinosaur, out of grey came an elephant, out of orange came a giraffe, out of purple came an anteater, and finally out of orange came a dog. The dog was the only animal to be a good friend to the boy so they stayed together. Each page of this wordless book is a white background with a splash of a different color with the silhouette of the animal emerging from it. The white space shows the boy's loneliness until he finds the dog. Write a diary entry in the voice of a character in your book.
Dear Diary,
As you know I've been feeling a little lonely recently. Today I decided to do something about it! I went for an adventure with my paints to see what they would bring me. First, I started with pink which brought birds! I was excited at first but them they flew away. Blue brought me fishies! But they swam away too. Green brought me a dinosaur! Can you believe it? But he was a little scary. Grey brought me an huge elephant! He didn't stick around. Orange brought a giraffe but he was as tall as the sky! Too tall for me. Purple brought an anteater that ran away chasing ants. But finally I got what I wanted!! A dog came from my last paint! I love him! Were best friends and I don't think he will run from me! Well I'm going to hang out with my new friend! Talk to you later diary!
Traditional Literature:
Fantasy:
Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
A boy named Max finds himself feeling trapped inside his own home. After being rambunctious, Max is sent to his room by his mom with no dinner. Max begins to imagine he is on an adventure and sails across the seas to arrive on an island filled with 'Wild Things'. Max is deemed king of the wild things and together they have a wild rumpus. Max becomes sad on the island and wants to go home. He sails back to his room where dinner is waiting for him. Maurice Sendak uses many illustrative techniques such as frames, white space, and two page spreads.
Explain how the main character changed throughout the story:
Max began as a kid who just wanted to have some adventure in his life. He found his life boring and monotonous and took the small things like a warm dinner for granted. After meeting the wild things and becoming the king, he began to to miss his home and mother. Once he returned home, he saw his little room in a much better way and was grateful for the hot meal on his dresser.
Mr. Wuffles!
A cat plays with a spaceship full of real aliens. The cat damages the ship and the aliens take the ship behind a radiator to repair the damages. The aliens and insects become friends and begin to communicate using drawings and share their friendship.
Give three reasons this book should be taught to the whole class:
The mostly wordless text allows for creative thinking and can be linked to practice in verbal and writing skills.
This strange story will catch the attention of your students as they begin to expand their minds.
Students will begin to notice the illustrations as being as important if not more important than the words in the book.
Journey
This wordless picture book follows a young girl on an adventure with a magic red marker. She draws a red door on her bedroom wall to escape to a world filled with castles, and danger. The girl goes on this journey but is captured by evil royalty. A red bird comes to release her.
Describe what you notice about the illustrations. What purpose do they have? Do they add to the story?
Since the illustrations are the story of this book they are very important. Aaron Becker used the use of color most prominently to portray meaning. The red items, along with the red marker, are the most important on the page. In contrast to the red, the rest of the book is typically in cool colors such as blues, greens. and shades of each. Science Fiction Picture Books:
Beegu by Alexis Deacon
A little yellow alien finds himself on earth all alone. He begins to explore to find a place to stay. Along the way he finds a box of puppies who seem to welcome him, however, the next day an adult comes by and kicks the little alien out. He also find some kids on a playground that welcome him and are very nice. But then an adult comes along and sends the alien away. Eventually a space ship comes to rescue Beegu and he is reunited with his parents. He tells the other aliens all about Earth and how most of the people were mean to him except for the children. The illustrations are a watercolor like media with bright colors that express the science fiction feel.
The Man in the Moon by William Joyce
This story encompasses many legends of childhood explained through one story involving a 'guardian of childhood'. It begins with the man in the moon as a baby. His parents, a friend named 'nightlight', the man in the moon, and other friends live on the moon clipper that travels around space. A villain who finds out the man in the moon has never had a nightmare and is on a mission to steal the man in the moon to become a prince of nightmares. Instead the parents fight the villain and are defeated but not before 'nightlight' defeats the villain. The moon clipper is no longer movable. The man in the moon grows up and becomes the guardian of the children on earth. He creates all the other guardians and makes the moon shine at night so the children are not scared. The illustrator includes diagrams of the important elements of the story and the multimedia pictures are done in a style that creates a very mysterious and science fiction vibe.
Poetry Anthologies:
Contemporary Realistic Fiction Picture Books:
Historical Fiction Picture:
Abe Lincoln Crosses A Creek
This is a story about Abe Lincoln and his friend Austin in 1816. The two take a journey down a creek. The two go through struggles and almost drowning experiences. The book ends with thanking Austin for saving Abe so he could be our president in the future.
Would you like to read more books by this author?
I would love to read more picture books written by Deborah Hopkinson. I liked how she involved her voice in the writing to make it humorous. The writing is read in a way that feels like someone is telling you an expressive story in person.
Culturally Rich Picture Books or Novels:
Trade Books:
Life Stories:
Creative Non-fiction Novels:
Novels:
We Were Liars
This book follows a girl, Cadence, through many parts of her life that are all focused around the Sinclair family's summers on the island. During Cadence's fifteenth year something happened to her while at the island that left her with amnesia and painful headaches. The story jumps around from summer to summer to try and explain how this could of happened and what Cadence is forgetting. No one will tell Cadence what happened which makes her start to pull away from her perfect family that no longer seems so perfect. (SPOILER ALERT) Through the jumps in time we finally get the full story of the incident. Cadence, her cousins, and a love interest named Gat decide that the house on the island that all of the sisters are fighting over should be burned down to end the fight. They create a plan but once the go to execute the plan, things go wrong and the cousins and Gat get stuck in the house and are killed. Cadence is the only one who makes it out alive. She finally remembers this through the help of her seventeenth summer when she thought she was spending her time with the cousins and Gat.
Why do you think the author chose the opening line he or she did? Did you like it? Did it make you want to read further?
"Welcome to the beautiful Sinclair family. No one is a criminal. No one is an addict. No one is a failure."
I feel that the author of this book made this the first few sentences of the story because it makes the reader immediately question the voice of the book and whether they are already lying to us. This is a great opening for the plot of the book.
Looking For Alaska
A boy named Miles convinces his parents to send him to the boarding school in Florida that his dad attended. At the school he begins to make friends with his roommate and a girl that goes by Alaska. The group pulls off a huge prank on the principal that brings them even closer together. During Thanksgiving break Miles stays with Alaska at the school and their romance blossoms. (SPOILER ALERT) The next day Alaska goes missing and Miles and his friends try to solve the mystery. Did you enjoy reading the book? Why or why not?
This book is now in my top ten books I've ever read. I loved the 'coming of age' story with the twist of Alaska going missing. John Green uses a them of 'everyone goes through a battle you don't know about'. Alaska isn't the typical perfect female character with the perfect family and life. She has character flaws that we all do. This was a plot line that really enjoyed reading.
Flush
A teenager, Noah Underwood, lives in the Florida Keys and is the son of an environmentalist. His dad was arrested for sinking a boat that had been pouring sewage into the ocean. The book had been salvaged and was going to sail again. Noah and his little sister go on a journey to expose the ship by putting pink dye into the toilets so that when the sewage is dumped, it will be easy to tell who is at fault.
Create an Award for this book. Why?
This book gained the award "National Award for Environmental Fiction". This book allows an environmental approach while it still being a clever and captivating story.
Freckle Juice
Andrew Marcus dreams of having freckles. In class he sits right behind Nicky Lane, a freckle covered classmate. Andrew thinks that if he had freckles then he his mother wouldn’t be able to tell if he washed behind his ears and neck before school each day. A mean girl in school, Sharon, over hears Andrew’s troubles and convinces him to buy her family’s secret recipe for obtaining freckles called “Freckle Juice”. Andrew hurries home to whip up the concoction of disgusting ingredients such as ketchup and mayonnaise. Andrew gulps it down and begins to feel sick. When his mother gets home she sends him straight to bed. Feeling sad that he didn’t get freckles, Andrew draws them on with a blue marker for the next day. Ms. Kelly, Andrew’s teacher gives Andrew a ‘freckle remover’ to get rid of the marker. The story ends with Sharon offering a secret recipe to Nicky Lane, the freckled boy, to remove his freckles.
Write about the theme of the story.
I think that Judy Blume took a shallow approach to the deeper lesson of accepting who you are and knowing that you were made into who you are for a reason so you should be proud of it.
Bloomability
A teenager named Domenica is put in a boarding school in Switzerland by her aunt and uncle. She begins to be homesick and want nothing more than to be home. As the story continues, she makes friends at the boarding school who become her family away from home. Together they make new memories and Domenica begins to see the beauty around her.
Would boys and girls enjoy this equally?
I believe that girls would connect with this book more than boys would. Like many of Sharon Creech's books, the main character is a 'coming of age' girl who is beginning to find herself through a series of events. I think girls would connect with the struggle of figuring out who you are in a world of personalities and what you believe.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Jacob's grandfather is mysteriously murdered by a strange creature. Jacob and his father go to Wales to learn more about the life of his grandfather. Through strange events, Jacob is able to find this orphanage for peculiar children. He learns that his grandfather lived there. The orphanage is in a time loop in 1940. Jacob learns of random deaths occurring due to the "hallowgasts" which he learns also killed his grandfather.
Write a slogan.
"We may all be strange, but not all of us are fortunate enough to be peculiar."
This book shows the life of children with peculiar things about them such as the ability to levitate or set things on fire with your hands.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Charlie, a 15 year old, writes letters to an unknown person about the events unfolding in his life. Two experiences from his past haunt him; the suicide of his friend and the death of his aunt. Charlie is a quiet person but two seniors become his friends. Charlie crushes on one of the friends, Sam. Charlie begins to get into drugs and alcohol causing his flashbacks of the dramatic experiences to be more often and worse. When his friends are about to leave for college, Charlie's condition worsens. He is found unconscious and it is revealed that Charlie was sexually assaulted by his Aunt when he was young and had repressed the memories. Charlie ends his letter writing by saying he wants to 'participate' in life.
Write about an important lesson from the book.
This dark book expresses the lesson that no matter our past we must choose where we want to go from there. Often the bad in our past isn't a choice but we need to use the bad to empower the good for our future.
Children's Literature Readers Notebook:
On this page I will be writing about many pieces of literature ranging from board books to picture books to novels and many in between. I will be summarizing the books as well as responding to another prompt.Concept Books:
- How Many Jelly Beans?
This concept book introduces increasing sums to children in picture form to allow children to see what an abstract number such as 1,000 looks like in real life.Write about an important lesson that was learned in the story.
Large numbers such as 1,000 are not commonly seen in our world. Students become familiar with the amount that is involved with numbers like 5 and 10 but often if you ask a student how much of something is in a jar they will give you a very large number because they know its more than ten but they aren't sure what number to reference next. This book makes these larger numbers more concrete.
ABC or Counting Books:
Wordless Books:- Carl's Summer Vacation
The mother tells her young daughter to go take a nap before the fourth of July fireworks begin so that she will be able to stay awake for them. However, on the way to take a nap the young girl finds the family dog and the two go on an adventure instead. They explore a pond, forest, and many other places. By the time they return the fireworks are about to begin. Both the dog and the girl are so tired from the adventure that they fall asleep just as the mother hoped they wouldn't. Since this is a book with very few to no words, the illustrations play a large part in telling the story. The illustrator uses bright summer related colors to relay the setting of a summer barbecue clearly.Text to Self Connection:
This story was essentially about a girl and her dog. I love this core meaning because I grew up with a golden retriever that was an extremely important part of my family. I remember being a girl child and exploring the woods surrounding my house with my dog. In this story the dog is somehow given human characteristics without even a word (since it is a wordless text). Any dog owner can connect to this idea of our animals not being able to talk but somehow having human characteristics such as caring and fun. The fact that the story is also 'unable to talk' in a way since it is wordless, is an interesting similarity to that of the concept of a family dog that I believe many readers will connect to.
- Wave
A young girl stands on the shore of the beach staring towards the waves. At first she is scared of the wave and is seen running away from them. Next, she tries to scare the wave however, the wave knocks her down. The girl, first looking sad, looks around her to see that the wave has brought in tons of beautiful seashells that are now all around her. She has conquered her fear and realized that she likes the wave. This wordless book has a very simple plot line that is amplified by the choices of the illustrator. The illustrator used a sketch media with little color other than the blue in the wave which sets the focus of the book.Five Adjectives To Describe the Book's Main Character
Beginning: Curious, Cautious, Scared
End: Brave and Admiring
A boy goes through many colors to try and find a friend. Out of pink came birds, out of blue came fish, out of green came a dinosaur, out of grey came an elephant, out of orange came a giraffe, out of purple came an anteater, and finally out of orange came a dog. The dog was the only animal to be a good friend to the boy so they stayed together. Each page of this wordless book is a white background with a splash of a different color with the silhouette of the animal emerging from it. The white space shows the boy's loneliness until he finds the dog.
Write a diary entry in the voice of a character in your book.
Dear Diary,
As you know I've been feeling a little lonely recently. Today I decided to do something about it! I went for an adventure with my paints to see what they would bring me. First, I started with pink which brought birds! I was excited at first but them they flew away. Blue brought me fishies! But they swam away too. Green brought me a dinosaur! Can you believe it? But he was a little scary. Grey brought me an huge elephant! He didn't stick around. Orange brought a giraffe but he was as tall as the sky! Too tall for me. Purple brought an anteater that ran away chasing ants. But finally I got what I wanted!! A dog came from my last paint! I love him! Were best friends and I don't think he will run from me! Well I'm going to hang out with my new friend! Talk to you later diary!
Traditional Literature:
Fantasy:- Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
A boy named Max finds himself feeling trapped inside his own home. After being rambunctious, Max is sent to his room by his mom with no dinner. Max begins to imagine he is on an adventure and sails across the seas to arrive on an island filled with 'Wild Things'. Max is deemed king of the wild things and together they have a wild rumpus. Max becomes sad on the island and wants to go home. He sails back to his room where dinner is waiting for him. Maurice Sendak uses many illustrative techniques such as frames, white space, and two page spreads.Explain how the main character changed throughout the story:
Max began as a kid who just wanted to have some adventure in his life. He found his life boring and monotonous and took the small things like a warm dinner for granted. After meeting the wild things and becoming the king, he began to to miss his home and mother. Once he returned home, he saw his little room in a much better way and was grateful for the hot meal on his dresser.
- Mr. Wuffles!
A cat plays with a spaceship full of real aliens. The cat damages the ship and the aliens take the ship behind a radiator to repair the damages. The aliens and insects become friends and begin to communicate using drawings and share their friendship.Give three reasons this book should be taught to the whole class:
- Journey
This wordless picture book follows a young girl on an adventure with a magic red marker. She draws a red door on her bedroom wall to escape to a world filled with castles, and danger. The girl goes on this journey but is captured by evil royalty. A red bird comes to release her.Describe what you notice about the illustrations. What purpose do they have? Do they add to the story?
Since the illustrations are the story of this book they are very important. Aaron Becker used the use of color most prominently to portray meaning. The red items, along with the red marker, are the most important on the page. In contrast to the red, the rest of the book is typically in cool colors such as blues, greens. and shades of each.
Science Fiction Picture Books:
- Beegu by Alexis Deacon
A little yellow alien finds himself on earth all alone. He begins to explore to find a place to stay. Along the way he finds a box of puppies who seem to welcome him, however, the next day an adult comes by and kicks the little alien out. He also find some kids on a playground that welcome him and are very nice. But then an adult comes along and sends the alien away. Eventually a space ship comes to rescue Beegu and he is reunited with his parents. He tells the other aliens all about Earth and how most of the people were mean to him except for the children. The illustrations are a watercolor like media with bright colors that express the science fiction feel.- The Man in the Moon by William Joyce
This story encompasses many legends of childhood explained through one story involving a 'guardian of childhood'. It begins with the man in the moon as a baby. His parents, a friend named 'nightlight', the man in the moon, and other friends live on the moon clipper that travels around space. A villain who finds out the man in the moon has never had a nightmare and is on a mission to steal the man in the moon to become a prince of nightmares. Instead the parents fight the villain and are defeated but not before 'nightlight' defeats the villain. The moon clipper is no longer movable. The man in the moon grows up and becomes the guardian of the children on earth. He creates all the other guardians and makes the moon shine at night so the children are not scared. The illustrator includes diagrams of the important elements of the story and the multimedia pictures are done in a style that creates a very mysterious and science fiction vibe.Poetry Anthologies:
Contemporary Realistic Fiction Picture Books:
Historical Fiction Picture:- Abe Lincoln Crosses A Creek
This is a story about Abe Lincoln and his friend Austin in 1816. The two take a journey down a creek. The two go through struggles and almost drowning experiences. The book ends with thanking Austin for saving Abe so he could be our president in the future.Would you like to read more books by this author?
I would love to read more picture books written by Deborah Hopkinson. I liked how she involved her voice in the writing to make it humorous. The writing is read in a way that feels like someone is telling you an expressive story in person.
Culturally Rich Picture Books or Novels:
Trade Books:
Life Stories:
Creative Non-fiction Novels:
Novels:- We Were Liars
This book follows a girl, Cadence, through many parts of her life that are all focused around the Sinclair family's summers on the island. During Cadence's fifteenth year something happened to her while at the island that left her with amnesia and painful headaches. The story jumps around from summer to summer to try and explain how this could of happened and what Cadence is forgetting. No one will tell Cadence what happened which makes her start to pull away from her perfect family that no longer seems so perfect. (SPOILER ALERT) Through the jumps in time we finally get the full story of the incident. Cadence, her cousins, and a love interest named Gat decide that the house on the island that all of the sisters are fighting over should be burned down to end the fight. They create a plan but once the go to execute the plan, things go wrong and the cousins and Gat get stuck in the house and are killed. Cadence is the only one who makes it out alive. She finally remembers this through the help of her seventeenth summer when she thought she was spending her time with the cousins and Gat.Why do you think the author chose the opening line he or she did? Did you like it? Did it make you want to read further?
"Welcome to the beautiful Sinclair family. No one is a criminal. No one is an addict. No one is a failure."
I feel that the author of this book made this the first few sentences of the story because it makes the reader immediately question the voice of the book and whether they are already lying to us. This is a great opening for the plot of the book.
- Looking For Alaska
A boy named Miles convinces his parents to send him to the boarding school in Florida that his dad attended. At the school he begins to make friends with his roommate and a girl that goes by Alaska. The group pulls off a huge prank on the principal that brings them even closer together. During Thanksgiving break Miles stays with Alaska at the school and their romance blossoms. (SPOILER ALERT) The next day Alaska goes missing and Miles and his friends try to solve the mystery.Did you enjoy reading the book? Why or why not?
This book is now in my top ten books I've ever read. I loved the 'coming of age' story with the twist of Alaska going missing. John Green uses a them of 'everyone goes through a battle you don't know about'. Alaska isn't the typical perfect female character with the perfect family and life. She has character flaws that we all do. This was a plot line that really enjoyed reading.
- Flush
A teenager, Noah Underwood, lives in the Florida Keys and is the son of an environmentalist. His dad was arrested for sinking a boat that had been pouring sewage into the ocean. The book had been salvaged and was going to sail again. Noah and his little sister go on a journey to expose the ship by putting pink dye into the toilets so that when the sewage is dumped, it will be easy to tell who is at fault.Create an Award for this book. Why?
This book gained the award "National Award for Environmental Fiction". This book allows an environmental approach while it still being a clever and captivating story.
- Freckle Juice
Andrew Marcus dreams of having freckles. In class he sits right behind Nicky Lane, a freckle covered classmate. Andrew thinks that if he had freckles then he his mother wouldn’t be able to tell if he washed behind his ears and neck before school each day. A mean girl in school, Sharon, over hears Andrew’s troubles and convinces him to buy her family’s secret recipe for obtaining freckles called “Freckle Juice”. Andrew hurries home to whip up the concoction of disgusting ingredients such as ketchup and mayonnaise. Andrew gulps it down and begins to feel sick. When his mother gets home she sends him straight to bed. Feeling sad that he didn’t get freckles, Andrew draws them on with a blue marker for the next day. Ms. Kelly, Andrew’s teacher gives Andrew a ‘freckle remover’ to get rid of the marker. The story ends with Sharon offering a secret recipe to Nicky Lane, the freckled boy, to remove his freckles.Write about the theme of the story.
I think that Judy Blume took a shallow approach to the deeper lesson of accepting who you are and knowing that you were made into who you are for a reason so you should be proud of it.
- Bloomability
A teenager named Domenica is put in a boarding school in Switzerland by her aunt and uncle. She begins to be homesick and want nothing more than to be home. As the story continues, she makes friends at the boarding school who become her family away from home. Together they make new memories and Domenica begins to see the beauty around her.Would boys and girls enjoy this equally?
I believe that girls would connect with this book more than boys would. Like many of Sharon Creech's books, the main character is a 'coming of age' girl who is beginning to find herself through a series of events. I think girls would connect with the struggle of figuring out who you are in a world of personalities and what you believe.
- Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Jacob's grandfather is mysteriously murdered by a strange creature. Jacob and his father go to Wales to learn more about the life of his grandfather. Through strange events, Jacob is able to find this orphanage for peculiar children. He learns that his grandfather lived there. The orphanage is in a time loop in 1940. Jacob learns of random deaths occurring due to the "hallowgasts" which he learns also killed his grandfather.Write a slogan.
"We may all be strange, but not all of us are fortunate enough to be peculiar."
This book shows the life of children with peculiar things about them such as the ability to levitate or set things on fire with your hands.
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Charlie, a 15 year old, writes letters to an unknown person about the events unfolding in his life. Two experiences from his past haunt him; the suicide of his friend and the death of his aunt. Charlie is a quiet person but two seniors become his friends. Charlie crushes on one of the friends, Sam. Charlie begins to get into drugs and alcohol causing his flashbacks of the dramatic experiences to be more often and worse. When his friends are about to leave for college, Charlie's condition worsens. He is found unconscious and it is revealed that Charlie was sexually assaulted by his Aunt when he was young and had repressed the memories. Charlie ends his letter writing by saying he wants to 'participate' in life.Write about an important lesson from the book.
This dark book expresses the lesson that no matter our past we must choose where we want to go from there. Often the bad in our past isn't a choice but we need to use the bad to empower the good for our future.